American man gets 8 years for killing, dismembering body of woman

A 27-year-old American man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a 27-year-old woman in Osaka last year, dismembering her body and dumping the parts in several locations.

The Kobe District Court handed down its ruling against Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar on Wednesday. He was convicted of strangling Saki Kondo at an apartment in Osaka on Feb 16, 2017, Fuji TV reported.

He dismembered the body and scattered the parts in Nishinari Ward in Osaka, as well as Shimamoto town in Osaka Prefecture and in the mountains near Kyoto.

Prosecutors had sought a 13-year prison term for Bayraktar who is from New York and had come to Japan on a tourist visa. They did not indict him for murder because they could not prove intent to kill. Instead, he was charged with manslaughter and abandoning a body.

The court heard that Bayraktar met the victim on an online dating site and that after killing her, attempted to destroy evidence by erasing his dating site account and buying a saw to dismember her body.

Bayraktar’s lawyer argued that he didn’t mean to kill Kondo and had since shown remorse for his act, saying that he would have to live with the consequences of his crime for the rest of his life.

Kondo’s father expressed disappointment at the verdict, telling reporters that “the sentence is too light and the truth remains unknown.”

Jan. 23
04:18 pm JST

Jan. 23
04:20 pm JST

I feel very sorry for Kondo sans parents, not only have they lost there daughter, but to hear a the courts verdict and sentencing of only 8 years, is a bit of a slap in there faces, I just hope he does the full 8 years and not reduced for good behaviour.

Jan. 23
04:20 pm JST

Jan. 23
04:23 pm JST

Jan. 23
04:26 pm JST

"saying that he would have to live with the consequences of his crime for the rest of his life."

poor baby, we should feel sorry for his pain, right?

intention or not, remorse or not, he killed and dismembered a young woman, he should rot in prison for the rest of his life. I can't imagine the pain of the parents. I would use my savings and arrange with the local yakuza to wait for him after the 8 years

Jan. 23
04:40 pm JST

Jan. 23
04:41 pm JST

"Prosecutors had sought a 13-year prison term for Bayraktar who is from New York and had come to Japan on a tourist visa. They did not indict him for murder because they could not prove intent to kill. Instead, he was charged with manslaughter and abandoning a body."

Please read the above. If the prosecutors had gone for Murder , they would have lost. However, the judge should have given the full 13 years.

One more point. It is really interesting that no one is saying the system is anti foreign now ?

Jan. 23
04:54 pm JST

Because she is deemed from weak class women, same as a prosititute as she was with a foriegner hence the judge and prosecutor didn't deem her valuable. If it would have been a woman with higher status he would have been given 80 years in prison. Lets just hope his fellow prisoners give him a very bad time make 8 years feel like 50 years

Jan. 23
05:08 pm JST

What a joke. I would say the fact that he dismembered her body and made an attempt to hide his crime by scattering the remains to conceal evidence demonstrates a lot more than an accidental killing. These are not the actions of someone who had "no intent" to kill.

Jan. 23
05:24 pm JST

Have I read this correctly?? 8 years and the court says he killed her?! They could not prove intent to kill but surely if you scatter that poor girl around the country then that points to guilt? If he wanted a no intent charge he should have called the cops after it happened. He didn't so its murder with intent.

Jan. 23
07:31 pm JST

Jan. 23
07:59 pm JST

Does anyone know the circumstances around the killing itself? Auto-erotic asphyxiation or some other extenuating reason he got such a light sentence?

Otherwise, on the surface of it this is an insanely light sentence. Distribution or even possession of certain substances would get you more time this in Japan. Sheesh, the sentence this person got really does boggle the mind...

Jan. 23
08:48 pm JST

Jan. 23
10:40 pm JST

8 years is an insult to the girl and her family; a local would be looking at life or death. If any murder case warrent killing the offender it is one like this. Being a foreigner should not grant an animal any sort of special consideration within a civilized country.

Jan. 23
10:47 pm JST

Jan. 24
12:21 am JST

Jan. 24
12:50 am JST

8 years is really too low. But his life is pretty much over in Japan. He can forget about ever setting foot inside the country again. Once you done a crime and were sentence, the stamp is forever on you. Also he definitely wouldn't like our prisons for foreigners offenders. He will go crazy in 1 year i bet.

Jan. 24
06:10 am JST

Only 8 years for this gruesome murder? This is one of the most shockingly lenient court sentences I can recall. It's almost an open invitation for would be murderers. 'Don't like someone? Murder them. You'll only get 8 years and then you're scott free as well as free of the problem person!'

The prosecutor and judge were probably bound by some legal technicality regarding intent. Knowing the Japanese who are sticklers for rules, they probably felt they couldn't come to any other conclusion. Which is absurd.

Something seems to be seriously wrong with either the law here or thier interpretation of it.

Jan. 24
04:22 pm JST

Jan. 26
12:45 pm JST

Since several posters have mentioned Britain, I did a little research. The average time served for murder in the UK is 16 years. (Because this is an average it means many serve less/more than 16 years.)

https://fullfact.org/crime/how-long-do-murderers-serve-prison/

Manslaughter sentences are in the 2-10 year but there is no mandatory sentence and some people do community service instead of going to jail.

In other words, the same crime in the UK or even a murder conviction would not necessarily result in a longer sentence. You could be convicted of murder in the UK and serve no more time than this guy got for manslaughter.

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